"The Taliban had gathered for a meeting in a mosque and coalition forces identified their location," Helmand province's deputy governor Amir Mohammad Akhunzada said on Monday.

"In an attack by planes, around 50 Taliban were killed," he told AFP.

The coalition said they had struck the rebels when they had retreated into a "compound" after attacking an Afghan and coalition patrol in restive Helmand province's Kajaki district.

A coalition spokesman, Major Quentin Innes, said he could believe the figures given by Akhunzada.

"Based on the incident, that's not an unreasonable number," he said, after being asked if the figures were accurate.

"This morning Afghan national security forces and coalition forces were attacked by ... suspected Taliban in Helmand province," the spokesman told AFP. The coalition responded by dropping a 2,500-pound-bomb on the compound.

A spokesman for the governor's office, Mohaidin Khan, confirmed the bombing but had no information on the casualties.

Helmand has seen some of the worst of a dramatic surge in fighting between Afghan and coalition security forces and militants linked to the Taliban regime that was toppled in late 2001 in a strike by a US-led coalition.

Around 400 people, most of them rebels, have been killed in fighting which erupted about 10 days ago, according to tolls issued by Afghan and coalition security forces.

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